Who is Charlie Kirk? Conservative firebrand coming to these Florida universities

Yahoo

21-02-2025

MAGA star Charlie Kirk is taking his "American Comeback Tour" to universities across Florida.
The first stop was at the University of South Florida in Tampa on Thursday. Next up is the University of Florida in Gainesville on Thursday, Feb. 27, and then Florida State University on Friday, Feb. 28.
At his campus stops, Kirk, conservative activist, author, radio talk show host and cofounder and chief of the conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA, debates students who challenge him at an open mic.
'America's students are still only given one side of the story, the leftwing side, so we intend to continue balancing the scales and equipping local students to fight for their values,' he said in a statement. 'If you're a progressive, you get to come to the front of the line and make your best argument, and I'll make mine.'
In 17 Politico fact-checks over Kirk's statements, 87% were found to be at least "Mostly False" with 17% coming in as "Pants on Fire."
Kirk has been a powerful fundraising force in the GOP and is regularly name-dropped by President Donald Trump, who invited him to speak at a viewing event at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. following the inauguration. According to an Arizona Republic story last year, Turning Point "and its allies have become the conservative movement's youth mobilizers-in-chief and, in some states, top enforcers of loyalty to former President Donald Trump. Plus, adds its spokesperson Andrew Kolvet, 'We're fun.' '
In January, Kirk accompanied Donald Trump Jr. on a trip to Greenland after the president had talked about acquiring the Arctic island.
Tickets are available at AmericanComebackTour.com.
Illinois native Charles James Kirk, 31, cofounded the nonprofit Turning Point USA in 2012 when he was 18. The organization's stated goal is to "build the most organized, active, and powerful conservative grassroots activist network on high school and college campuses across the country." TPUSA claims to be on over 3,500 campuses and has spawned other activist measures, including, among others, an online academy, Turning Point Faith, and Turning Point Action, a political advocacy group that heavily involved itself, without results, in the 2022 cycle in Arizona and other swing states.
Among Turning Point USA's first initiatives was creating a professor watchlist, a listing of those it said advanced 'leftist propaganda' or were hostile to conservative students.
Turning Point USA had its own turning point in 2016 when it began enthusiastically promoting Trump's 2016 campaign and Kirk served as a personal aide to Donald Trump Jr. Kirk's compensation soared from $27,000 in 2016 to more than $407,000 by 2021, according to the Associated Press, while other Turning Point officials collected large salaries and enjoyed lavish perks.
A 2020 ProPublica investigation found irregularities with TPUSA's auditor and how the group is run, and in 2017 The New Yorker exposed racial text messages from the group's former field director.
Kirk also hosts "The Charlie Kirk Show" on Salem Media's "The Answer" radio channel. In 2021, it was ranked as the 21st most popular podcast on Apple podcasts. Apple currently lists it as No. 15 for U.S. news podcasts, just above NPR.
Kirk has spoken out against the validity of the 2020 election and said he didn't think Black History Month deserved a whole month and that only married heterosexual couples should be able to adopt children.
Kirk has called for an immediate end to immigration and abortion, spread misinformation on COVID, suggested that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had issued a 'stand-down order' when Hamas militants attacked in 2023 to justify an assault on Gaza, and does not consider climate change to be a real threat.
Kirk and TPUSA focus on removing what he calls critical race theory and DEI, programs. Earlier last year Kirk kicked off more outrage when he focused on DEI in commercial flying, saying, "If I see a Black pilot, I'm going to be like, 'Boy, I hope he's qualified.'"
In April, Kirk declared that women in their 30s were past their prime and blamed birth control for making them "angry and bitter."
"And birth control like really screws up female brains, by the way," he said, according to mediaite.com. "Every single one of you need to make sure that your loved ones are not on birth control."
In 2024, AP reported that Kirk owned three properties, including a Spanish-style mansion near Phoenix, Arizona (although he put it up for sale), a nearby apartment and a two-bedroom, two-bath beachside condo on Longboat Key on the Gulf Coast of Florida he bought for $855,000, according to property records.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA CEO, speaking at Florida universities